REGION, July 14th- At a time of great uncertainty members of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Union have met in Philadelphia for their convention. Approximately 8,000 NALC members attended the convention held at the Philadelphia Convention Center on July 20th for the week long event that included discussions on how their members will survive the continued cutbacks of the United States Postal Service (USPS) of mail delivery.

The NALC conducts the convention every two years and it was estimated approximately 12,000 people attended between the USPS letter carriers members and their families. Participates included representatives of NALC Branches from the Lehigh Valley.

The union fought-off a USPS proposal in 2013 that would have cut mail delivery service to customers from six days a week to five. The plan would have costs around 22,500 jobs within the USPS system with the majority of jobs lost being NALC members.

The USPS operates as an independent agency but is subject to the United States Congress oversight.

The USPS is lossing money with the biggest reason being the 2006 mandate that forced retiree health benefits to be pre-funded 75 years in advance at the cost of $5.6 billion a year. All other businesses, including private and public, only fund these expenses year to year.